The impressive Bernini columns that stretch from St. Peter's Basilica out towards Rome, enclosing St. Peter's Square, have been described as the arms of the Church reaching out and welcoming all people, all language groups, all cultures, and all individuals looking for truth, happiness in this life, and eternal salvation in the next. Our beloved converts have come to love the Church as their mother and home. They have prayed, argued, studied, and finally embraced the Catholic faith. But it wasn't by their works alone that they have found a home in the Church. Ultimately they--like all Catholics--are members of the Church because of God's generous gift of faith, which we neither earn nor deserve. May these converts, and all like them, persevere in their newfound faith and bear fruit a hundredfold.
-Most Rev. Michael J. Sheehan
Archbishop, Archdiocese of Santa Fe
We like to hear others talk in glowing terms about someone we love. We take delight in gaining new appreciation of that person by seeing him through the eyes of others. And if still others want to praise that person, we will not stop them by saying we have already heard all the good things we need to hear.
Though volumes of convert stories have appeared in recent years, we who love the Catholic Church never tire of reading about how still others have allowed themselves to be led by the Holy Spirit into the Church. We know the next one we read will give us a fresh look at the Church through that person's eyes. Curious or even critical non-Catholics will find much food for thought in these testimonies.
Each convert travels a unique road. One of our contributors reminds us of this by quoting Venerable John Henry Newman, the most distinguished of all Catholic converts since Augustine. Newman pointed out that the Catholic Church "presents herself very differently to different minds who are contemplating her from without. God deals with them differently, but, if they are faithful to their light, at last, in their own time, though it may be a different time to each, he brings them to that one and the same state of mind, very definite and not to be mistaken, which we call conviction."
-Fr. Ray Ryland
Professor of Theology, Franciscan University of Steubenville
From a Jewish background, through 18 years of Evangelical Protestantism, Rosalind Moss entered the Catholic Church at Easter 1995. Her initial conversion took her from a 15-year business career as a successful executive with corporations in New York and California to full-time Evangelical ministry, earning a master's degree in Ministry from Talbot Theological Seminary. Now a staff apologist at Catholic Answers, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the Catholic faith through all forms of media, Rosalind travels around the world speaking and teaching at parishes and conferences. Rosalind is a frequent radio guest on "Catholic Answers Live," and together with Kristine Franklin, co-hosts a 16-week series for EWTN entitled "Household of Faith." She lives in La Mesa, California.
